Establishing Communist Rule - 1949-57 Flashcards
1
Q
What positives were there for the Communists after the end of the Civil war?
A
- Ending the war brought general goodwill towards the Communists
- Due to outmanoeuvring the Nationalists, they had shown exceptional organisational skills causing optimism in the party
- Due to the damage caused by the war, rebuilding China was a longitudinal project and due to Mao’s declaration of short term cooperation with the bourgeoisie, everyone thought a united front would be formed and their interests would be represented. This was obviously wishful thinking
- Mao had certified his position as the leader due to his military prowess in the war, this also meant he surpassed other military commanders and earned the loyalty of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army)
- Witnessing the differing political factions causing conflict under Chiang Kai-Shek, Mao was influenced to create a highly centralised political system
- Initially, Mao had gained the support of the peasants through land redistribution campaigns from landowners to poor peasants. He also did this through ensuring the PLA treated the peasants better than the GMD forces
- Throughout the civil war, the Communists gained more and more land expanding from Harbin in Northern Manchuria and applying the lessons learned there elsewhere showing they were capable of handling urban and rural issues
2
Q
What was the immediate impact of the civil war on the economy?
A
- The nationalists had payed for the war through borrowing causing hyperinflation by 1945 rising again to 1000% by 1949 which was made worse when Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan with China’s foreign currency reserves
3
Q
What was the immediate impact of the civil war on agriculture?
A
- Food supply was critical in 1949 caused by the enlistment of farming peasants into the red army and the fleeing of Chinese people inland to escape the Japanese resulting in a 30% drop in food production from 1937 to 1945
- This caused a famine in the Henan province killing 2-3 million people
Food requisitioning in the war would also be used after 1949 due to the growing population of the PLA and urban population. - 20% of the population lived in cities that depended on surpluses from the countryside even though the countryside couldn’t feed itself
4
Q
What was the immediate impact of the civil war on industry?
A
- Japan occupied the most productive areas as they moved Southwards. Reduced productive capacity due to Japanese bombing raids and retreating nationalist scorched Earth tactics. When the Japanese were defeated in 1945, China’s industrial level fell to 25% of its pre war level
- Even when the Japanese were defeated, the Russians had declared war on them shortly before allowing them to seize all of China’s industrial assets in Japanese occupied Manchuria
5
Q
What was the long-term impact of the civil war on agriculture?
A
- When communists seized power in 1949, China was only producing wheat, oilseed and rice crops with labour intensive methods involving little mechanisation relying on horse and manpower.
- Agricultural development under the nationalists had been slow but was completely stopped due to the steep decline in food prices during the Great Depression with world trade slumping after 1931.
- Due to only 15% of Chinese land being cultivable, in order to improve the outcome, modernised techniques were needed.
- This was becoming increasingly necessary as the overall population had increased by 46 million people by 1953 despite the war killing 20 million people.
6
Q
What was the long-term impact of the civil war on industry?
A
- China had still yet to go through an industrial revolution unlike Western Europe despite withholding all the necessary factors possibly due to low labour costs meaning labour saving machinery was never a necessity.
- The most developed industry was in Manchuria and this had been in Japanese hands since 1931 and even when they were defeated in 1945, the Soviets claimed the further developed iron and steel industries
- In response, Chang Kai-Shek set up the National Resources Committee in 1932 to develop industry elsewhere meaning by 1945, 70% of industry was state owned and the NRC had a staff of 30,000 technical experts who supervised a workforce of 250,000. This industry would remain nationalised after 1949
- Despite this, underinvestment hindered industrial growth meaning in the future growth of industry would have to be made a priority and in order to do this, agriculture had to be improved in order to feed urban workers
7
Q
What was the long-term impact of the civil war on economy?
A
- Economic infrastructure was also underdeveloped and destroyed by lack of maintenance and bombing raids between 1937 and 1949
- Rail, road and telephone links would have to be restored and modernised in order to improve industry as intended as in 1949, only Manchuria, the east coast and the Lower Yangtze had transport and communication systems.
- Mao had implemented a radio broadcasting system that began its functions in 1949 as he experimented with radio in Yanan but overall the communications infrastructure needed a far bigger overhaul
8
Q
What were the immediate steps to setting up the PRC?
A
Importance of setting up a system quickly:
- To prevent China falling into chaos as it had done in the past with the warlords
To provide the new regime with legitimacy so people would begin to actually follow it
Preparations prior to October 1949:
- Collaboration with other groups who opposed the GMD split the nationalists and also made the regime seem popular and did this until they were strong enough to stand alone in the 1950’s
Post October 1949:
- October 1949, the PRC could now be declared as a republic
- Initially temporary bodies and a provisional constitution was set up until more permanent things could be finalised, which they were by 1954
- Even though the constitution wasn’t finalised by 1954, prior to this, it was immediately clear that the Communist party would rule through a partnership with the PLA
- Government controlled press was widely accepted prior to 1949 and was accepted
9
Q
What was the role of the CPPCC?
A
- September 1949, slightly before the defeat of the GMD, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which acted as a provisional government with 14 other parties until the 1954 constitution was enforced. It was responsible for the creation of legislation involving the creation of a Communist state.
- 600 delegates of mostly Communist Sympathisers but there were minority groups such as the China Democratic League making the CPPCC appear legitimate
- The CPPCC appointed the central people’s government as the supreme state body (From 1954 known as the state council) which approved the common programme (a provisional constitution to be used until 1954). It also decided nationalist symbols such as the capital city and national anthem
10
Q
What was the role of the Common Programme?
A
- Guaranteed freedoms such as gender equality,
- But also allowed the police and the army to suppress any counter-revolutionary threats which they used frequently
11
Q
What was democratic centralism?
A
- During the development of socialism, cooperation between proletariat and bourgeoisie was needed and this was described by Mao as ‘new democracy’ but more widely known as democratic centralism
- The Central government was purely symbolic approving any proposals that the Politburo presented
- The CPPCC acted as legislature until the constitution was fully drafted in 1954 and all previous laws and judicial systems from the GMD were abolished
- The Politburo was a key decision making body of 14 members meeting but between these meetings the 5 man standing committee of Mao, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yun and Zhou De would make key decisions which would always be rubber stamped by the CPPCC.
12
Q
What was the political structure of the PRC pre 1954 constitution?
A
- China was divided into 6 bureaux with a superficial regional congress when in reality 4 senior communist o\fficials were appointed to each region. A party secretary, military commander, army political commissar and a government chairman)
- The concentration of this power system was even more centralised in certain regions such as in Manchuria where Gao Gang held all 4 posts and three party leaders (Gao Gang, Lin Biao and Peng Dehaui) held multiple posts
13
Q
What did the 1954 constitution change?
A
- Confirmed China as a Communist country
- The National People’s Congress was promoted to acted as the new legislature
- The state council replaced the Central People’s Government as the supreme state body
- The constitution further entrenched bureaucracy but through a facade of superficial democracy such as rigged elections
- The 6 burueax were divided into 21 provinces, five autonomous border regions and two urban centres being Beijing and Shanghai
- Edited in 1984 but still remained fundamentally the same.
14
Q
What were the effects on centralisation due to the growth of government?
A
- Due to the establishment of the Communist government, the number of bureaucrats grew substantially from 720,000 in 1949 to 8 million in 1959
- Mao viewed this as a problem as he believed the bureaucratisation of the Revolution would reduce impetus as too much power would be given to civil servants more concerned with their jobs and therefore the status quo.
15
Q
What was the role of the Communist government in the PRC?
A
- The CCP were always going to run the PRC even if the 1954 constitution tried to hide this
- Leading CCP members held posts in both government and military such as Zhou Enlai being premier of the state council until 1976 and Peng Dehaui being the minister of defence and commander of the PLA
- The party was much more powerful than the state which can be seen through Mao’s decision to step down as head of state in 1958 but remained as chairman of the party as that’s where the power lay.
- Membership of the party was restricted to the ideologically correct and this can be seen through only 0.009% of the Chinese population were members in October 1949
-Cadres, party members who reported on the loyalty of citizens, also retained roles in the civil service, legal system, schools and military at local levels.
- Mass participation was encouraged which can be seen in the Youth league which has 9 million members by 1953, the women’s federation which had 76 million members which also allowed ordinary people to identify with the party allowing the use of widespread labour such as the land reform campaigns in the early 1950’s and the cultural revolution
- All employed citizens were part of a danwei which was a work unit led by a party cadre issuing permits to travel, marry and change jobs.
16
Q
What was the role of the PLA?
A
- Defeated the PLA and the Japanese to allow the consolidation of Communist rule in China giving them a special place in Communist mythology
- It was the world’s largest army boasting 5 million men in 1950 using 40% of the state budget
- It was cut in half by 1957 due to the amount of manpower being better used elsewhere under Peng Dehaui
- As it became smaller it became more professional with pay scales and ranks also drawing up a new code of conduct in 1956 stressing the importance of helping peasants to maintain their loyalty
- After 1949, it had many roles such as indoctrinating the youth through supervising 800,000 annual young conscript recruits, construction through public work projects on repairing infrastructure and enforcing centralised CCP control as 2/4 regional officials were high ranking PLA post holders.
17
Q
What was the role of Mao?
A
- Became party leader in 1943 after purging all real and imagined enemies in the rectification campaign.
- October 1949, Mao was made chair of party and state with the only challenge being the collective leadership of the party winning debates inside of the Politburo against Mao which rarely happened allowing Mao to set the direction of forthcoming policy such as the intervening in the Korean war in 1950 and the 5 anti campaigns in 1952
- There were some challenges to Mao’s power from leading colleagues such as the removal of Mao Zedong thought as the guiding ideology of the party in 1956, it taking months to get the party to support the 100 flowers campaign in 1956-57 and frequent disputes over the pace of agriculture reform
18
Q
What were Mao’s main ideas?
A
Developed during Mao’s years at Yanan
Nationalism - The belief that China should be free of any undermining threats, this was the number one priority
Continuing revolution - 1949 was the start of revolution not the end.
Listening to the people - The extent to which Mao actually believed this is debatable due to the 100 flowers campaign but it was based on the Russian’s failure to unite the people through understanding and instead alienating them.
Mass mobilisation - China’s huge population was its main asset and achieving specific targets was much more important than appeasing experts.
Those who deviated from this set of ideologies would be put through struggle sessions entailing vicious beating, confessions and self criticism in order to scare the victim into conforming
19
Q
Why did the Communists face opposition?
A
- Mao had promised his opponents what they had wanted and when he gained power he broke all of them. For example, the peasants were promised land redistribution, workers were promised high living standards, private ownership would continue for businessmen and intellectuals were promised freedom. All of these promises were subsequently broken.
- A subgroup of the GMD were included in CPPCC initially, known as the Democratic League, to give the impression of a democracy and that the Communist party were to incorporate all views and appease everyone
20
Q
Why did Mao not begin removing internal opposition immediately?
A
- Mao had been focused on securing internal control in China by finishing off the remaining GMD involving sending the PLA into Guangdong.
21
Q
What did Mao’s purges look like?
A
After Mao consolidated internal control by fully defeating the GMD the pace of change sped up through actions such as:
- Intervening in the Korean War and at the same time launching a purge campaign internally against enemies of the party accounting for 1-2 million lives from 1950-51 creating a climate of terror
- This encouraged people to educate themselves on the party ideology to avoid being purged and if they were they’d be sent to a Laogai (labour camp)
- The professionals who had been asked to stay were then purged with over a million government servants sacked in the 1951 ‘three antis’ campaign
- 1952, the next target were the business workers in the 5 anti’s campaign
- 1955, collectivisation of agriculture began ending brief peasant land ownership
- 1956, businesses were nationalised
- 1957, the intellectuals would be purged after the 100 flowers campaign
22
Q
What were the reunification campaigns?
A
Guangdong
- Guangzhou, the GMD capital, was capitulated after 2 weeks of the PLA being in Beijing meaning the GMD gave up easily.
Xinjiang
- 80% Uyghurs, a Sunni Muslim group
- The nationalist opposition there was conquered through conquest and negotiation by the CCP
- Local Uyghur leaders were offered posts in the regional councils
- 1949, Peng Dehaui used the PLA to capture the provincial capital
- A Long March veteran was employed to run the local CCP and Army unit ensuring future Communist control in the area
- Many Han Chinese worked on construction projects
- This made XinJiang a buffer zone for the PRC
Tibet
- Independent since 1913 and announced its resistance to the CCP and as the British had left India and the UN were occupied with Korea, the PLA could openly invade Tibet in 1950
- After 6 months, in 1951, the PLA had conquered Tibet and the PRC aimed to destroy Tibetan identity through inviting mass amounts of Han settlers and promoting a Chinese lifestyle
- When the Dalai Lama fled the country in 1959, the local uprisings were backed by the CIA
23
Q
How did the CCP use labelling as an Internal terror methods against opponents of Communism?
A
- Immediately as the 1954 constitution was declared, CCP police were made to root out nationalist sympathisers and one way of making this easier was to expand the GMD house registration system introduced in 1945.
- This came in the form of the Danwei (work unit) who would allocate housing, food and clothing with police delivering ration cards several times a month with denial of these being a powerful tool with the system being a good surveillance system for the CCP
- Individuals were given class labels that were sorted into categories good, middle and bad which were further simplified into red and black with the children inheriting the class label
- This allowed the police to move on to less obvious targets than the GMD sympathisers but experts were not purged in the first 12 months due to them having a necessary role in society with the wisest taking re-education classes to avoid being purged
- Those who didn’t attend classes were to confess and publicly renounce their views but every part of their behaviour would be noted in a dangan that would decide their employment, housing and pensions and be constantly updated.
24
Q
How did the CCP use cracking down on criminals as an Internal terror methods against opponents of Communism?
A
- Beggars and prostitutes were relocated to the west or locked up in the sort term but although largely popular, those relocated came back and reeducation camps became full with the situation worsening once parts of the PLA began to be demobilised
- Over 150,000 triads were arrested, as they had mass influence in the criminal underworld especially in Shanghai and Guangzhou, with 50% of them being executed
25
What was the Great Terror of 1950-51 and who had a role in it?
- Happened at the same time as Chinese intervention in Korea and because of this, American invasion of China became possible and in order to ensure proper defence, the Chinese had to ‘unite’
Tao Zhu’s role in the great terror:
- Nicknamed the tank
- Sent the Guangxi province on the Vietnam border
- Brutal treatment included killing 46,000 bandits in one year equivalent to killing 2.5 of every 1000 in the population in 1 year, this treatment was needed to crush any nationalist sympathetic attitudes
Luo Ruiqing’s role in the great terror:
- Head of security in Beijing
- Transmitted Mao’s wishes to provincial leaders and due to pressure from Luo ,killings in the Hubei province rose by 44780 in 10 months
Mao’s role in the great terror:
- Set the overall tone of use of terror but delegated power to people like Tao Zhu and Luo Ruiqing
- After excesses, Mao suggested killing just 1 out of every 1000 with slight adjustment depending on local context so he could act as the voice of reason but as he delegated the power to people lower than him, no blame of excess could be placed on him
Rao Shushi’s role in the great terror:
- Proposed to Mao the extension of killings into the CCP which Mao agreed with also filling up the prison disallowing any more arrests
26
Why were the Great Terror purges extended into the city?
- Fear of bad publicity and scaring needed experts, there was a small amount of terror in the city
- This changed in 1951 when a top military officer was killing in Jinan resulting in 16 cities being swept causing 16,000 arrests and lots of confessions, executions and suicides
27
What were the results of the Great Terror?
- 1954 party convention placed deaths at 710,000 but it could be as high as 2 million
- Several million were sent labour camps
- Several million were sorted into black categories making them targets of antirevolutionary campaigns, along with their children
- Survival encouraged isolation as friends would report on friends in order to protect themselves
28
What was the three anti movement?
- Launched in 1951 targeting corruption waste and delay
- Launched due to the embezzlement of funds by 2 leading members of the CCP in Tianjin with Mao ordering their execution
- Bo Yibo, minister of finance, headed the operation by which managers and officials were denounced in mass meetings with those accused attending accusation meetings and embarrassed to confess
- Small criminals were called flies and bigger criminals called tigers with tiger hunting teams trying to outdo each other and in 1952 Bo Yibo boasted catching 100,000 tigers
- Outsiders saw the campaign as trying to root out corruption but those involved saw the campaign as false with faulty accusations.
29
What was the five anti movement?
- Widened from the 3 antis in 1952 in order to root out bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, economic espionage and fraud
- Denunciation meetings were used again but directly against the bourgeoisie who had been encouraged to stay in their jobs in order to rebuild China which had been broken by the civil war
- Party activists encouraged employees to accuse their bosses of crime which would have included anything with denunciation boxes speeding up the process
- Once accused, it was extrenely rare to be acquitted and the main challenge was getting the ‘confession’ to be believed. Out of the accused, 1% were shot, 1% were sent to labour camps, 3% were imprisoned and the rest were fined but many killed themselves before being punished
- In response, suicide nets were placed on buildings and parks were patrolled to stop people hanging themselves from trees.
Fines were used to destroy the bourgeoisie and fund the Korean War but it could be argued that the disruption did more harm than good to the economy
- Gao Gang and Rao Shushi were purged in 1953 after being accused of forming empires in the party and would die later on by suicide and in jail reaffirming Mao’s position at the top
30
What was the Laogai system?
- Official explanation said they were places of reeducation when in reality it was a system of terror initially used to help with the overflowing prison population due to the initiation of the new regime and by 1953 there were 2 million prisoners with half working as forced labourers in the Laogai camps
- Aswell as serving a political purpose, they were also incredibly economically important as they contributing 700 million yuan in industrial products and 350,000 tons of grain to the state each year by 1955
- Prisoners could also be used for dangerous jobs
- 9/10 inmates were political prisoners and it was widely accepted that many prisoners were wrongfully accused
- Conditions were filled with constant violence and torture with hard labour and bad diets
- Mental torture through thought reform meant attending struggle session with the only way to prove you had reformed was through beating other inmates
- Prison population increased again in 1955 when a new purge of counter revolutionaries superseding laws meaning people can be sent straight there without trial and wouldn't be let go until the people running the camp let them meaning many people went missing
- Number of deaths between 1949-76 varies but estimated around 25 million
Once a prisoner was released or the prisons were too full, people would be placed under public supervision known as Guanzhi meaning convicts would be placed under the control of local cadres useful for performing menial tasks and marched around during parades. Luo Ruiqing estimated 740,000 people in this system by 1953 but the figure is likely higher
31
What was the The Hundred Flowers Campaign?
- 1956, Mao called for open debate as the first five year plan was coming to an end possibly influenced by destalinization but may have changed his mind after the hungarian uprising
- He may have also wanted to win over the intellectuals by allowing them to express their opinions
- Mao continued to promote the process of feedback to the CCP congress in November 1956 and again in 1957 but no one listened possibly out of fear of being purged
- The arrest of Hu Feng and 100 other intellectuals 2 years earlier possibly added to the reluctance to criticise
- After Mao paid newspapers to cover the debate and travelled China to hear concerns of the people, mass amounts of criticism flooded Mao such as denunciations of leaders
- Mao then called for a purge of all those who took part in the criticisms resulting in 500,000 new inmates after he branded them as rightists
- Mao had more power but lost the trust of the intellectuals
32
What were the political effects of involvement in the Korean war for the development of the PRC?
- Need to further control over the popular due to the threat of US invasion of China was a valid excuse to use more extreme methods of terror and control allowing
Mao to launch the Great Terror in 1950 after the PLA troops were sent to Korea and the three and five anti movements shortly after allowing Mao to wipe out any nationalist opposition but also the potential of it.
- Local leaders were given control of some of the war efforts to secure control and people were happy to rat out exploitative bosses and rival colleagues furthering party control over the population
- Foreigners received harsh treatments such as forcing them to leave the country after they had everything taken from them with the Americans and Christian Missionaries being targeted more harshly
- The Russians didn’t leave as they were permitted to stay thtrough the Sino-Soviet Treaty in 1950
- Mao also took the opportunity to strengthen national unity through denouncing America and promoting the aid of Korea where mass meetings were organised in schools and workplaces with the press launching anti-US propaganda created by Zhou Enlai
- Rallies were attended but those who didn’t attend were persecuted and it was an opportunity to pressure new volunteers for the PLA
- Taxes were raised, compulsory donations of up to 3 months wages and farmers had crops requisitioned
- 1952, US germ warfare scandal claiming they were launching germy insects on Manchuria and North Korea, tours were organised to browse the proof with confessions of US pilots being blasted through speakers the Russians declared this as false in 1953
- The killing of the ‘5 pests’ allowed the killing of dogs which in reality was a destruction of bourgeois custom of pet owning
33
What were the Manpower effects of the Korean War?
- 1 million estimated Chinese deaths
- Mao’s son also died in an incendiary raid
- Most soldiers were forced to fight rather than ‘volunteer’
34
What were the Economic effects of the Korean War?
- Half of government spending was on military in 1951 despite the annual bdget being three times higher than 75% higher than 1950’s
- Most military technology and advice was provided by the Russians and had to be paid for.
- A trade embargo placed by the US caused a 30% drop in foreign trade for the first 6 months of 1951
- Mass requisitioning of crops caused famine in some regions
- The success of the first 5 year plan was limited due to the vital industrial resources being diverted to Korea
- Vital areas such as infrastructure, education and health provision were not developed
35
What was the international relations effects of the Korean war?
- Since the PLA held the US troops back for 3 years, China could claim to be the most powerful communist union
Preserving Korea meant strengthening the Korean peninsula as an invasion point into China.
- However, the US was now an enemy and they planned to undermine Chinese control of Tibet, replace the French in Vietnam and refusing China into the UN until 1972
- Relations with the Soviet Union also suffered as Stalin failed to offer adequate air support and had misled Mao.
